"....The staff is sick and tired of the impunity extended by the office of the Secretary-General to senior managers for their failings especially in situations where it has led to death and disability....."
- UN Staff Union

Sunday, November 21, 2010

North Korea's uranium plant sends a chilling message to Washington

The West's policy of trying to cut Pyongyang off from nuclear supplies has been shown to be failing miserablySiegfried Hecker: the man who used to run the US nuclear weapons laboratories at Los Alamos, was taken aback by the advanced state of North Korea's uranium enrichment plant on a recent visit. Photograph: Dennis Cook/AP

North Korea does not as a rule give American academics tours of its most sensitive nuclear sites. Siegried Hecker was shown around Yongbyon not out of a sudden spirit of scientific openness, but to send a message to Washington. That message said: not only are we enriching uranium, we are already very good at it.

Hecker, who used to run the US nuclear weapons laboratories at Los Alamos, was whisked around the new enrichment facility with his mouth agape. The place was much bigger than he imagined and much more modern.

It means that efforts to cut North Korea off from nuclear technology are failing miserably. The policy of imposing sanctions and refusing to resume talks with Pyongyang until it ceases the most provocative elements of that programme (and apologises for sinking a South Korean battleship this year),is not working.

North Korea has shown itself extremely adept at the game of nuclear bluff. It has provoked three previous nuclear crises, in 1994, 2002 and 2006, aimed at raising the stakes at the six-party talks and winning more pledges of economic aid and fuel oil deliveries. These new developments suggest that, whatever the health of the Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il, the regime as a whole has not lost its taste for brinkmanship.

The Hecker report gives Washington a lot to think about on several fronts. First, despite its claims that everything Hecker saw was home-made, it is clear that North Korea has been able to go shopping around the world for the equipment it needs, despite multiple UN sanctions. In fact, the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington deduced the existence of such an enrichment plant over a month ago, based on analysis of North Korea's procurement methods.

The second striking element of the discovery is the speed at which the 2,000-centrifuge enrichment plant was built. It was not there just a year ago. That is highly unusual because getting precise high-speed centrifuges to work consistently and lining them up in "cascades" of 300 machines would normally take years.

"There is an anomaly in how rapidly this has been built," said David Albright, the head of the institute, which yesterday published satellite pictures of the site. "That raises the question of whether this plant was originally put together somewhere else and was moved to Yongbyon, or whether there is a parallel plant elsewhere."

Albright said that the third reason for international concern was that the sophisticated centrifuge plant had gone undetected until the North Koreans had chosen to reveal it to Hecker.

"It shows how difficult it is to find these centrifuge plants," he said, adding that that had implications in Iran, where some western intelligence agencies believe the government is pursuing a secret enrichment project in parallel to its publicly acknowledged programme.

It is just the latest in a series of blows to Barack Obama's nuclear agenda. He took office in 2009 promising that the nuclear weapons powers would do more to disarm and thereby further isolate "rogue" states like Iran and North Korea, strangling their attempts to join the nuclear club by the back door.

So far, his disarmament efforts appear stalled at home while both Pyongyang and Tehran show no sign of surrendering their nuclear ambitions.

UNDP's Free Speech Concept

This is what pro-poor means at United Nations

United Nations Development Millionaires !

637 UNDP Staffers are Millionaires, and another 1041 UNDP staffers have enough salary (income) to justify million dollar homes in New York (or tri-state area NY/NJ/CT).

UN/UNDP's budgets are untransparent !

U.N. budget is “utterly opaque, untransparent and completely in the shadow” and would benefit from being consolidated and audited from the outside. MMB from NyTimes

JOSE RAMOS HORTA - PRESIDENT OF EAST TIMOR

‘‘You know how many layers of bureaucracy there are when the European Union wants to help East Timor? Well, they don’t provide the funds to us, the funds allocated are managed by world bank. And the world bank has its own layers of bureaucracy. And they charge for that. The project is then managed by UNDP. But UNDP is only good at doing studies, they don’t execute projects.’‘

Boutros Boutros-Ghali on UN:

"perhaps half of the UN work force does nothing useful"

Can Helen Clark be trusted on Climate Change ?

President Obama's answer to Helen Clark's appeal for US to do more on climate change was : "I think the American people right now have been so focused, and will continue to be focused, on our economy and jobs and growth that ... if the message is somehow, we're going to ignore jobs and growth simply to address climate change, I don't think anybody's gonna go for that," he said. "I won't go for that."

In 2011 Rami Makhlouf - a trusted development partner of UNDP in Syria

In 2008 U.S. Treasury designation: Rami Makhluf Designated for Benefiting from Syrian Corruption (Click on photo to see US Treasury page)

"Screwed" How Foreign Countries Are Ripping America Off

A full chapter (7) dedicated to UNDP and UN Secretariat. But it today at Amazon.com (click above picture)

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Asma al-Assad is UNDP's champion of reform in Syria

UNDP's special relations with dictators and terror is well documented. Yet, they continue to operate covered by UN Immunity. Click on immage for story.

Aicha Gaddafi You are Fired !

UNDP continues to be in bed with other dictators. Will clean it one at a time.

Where is NETAID money David Morrison?

UNDP Transparency Censored

UNDP Chief Finance Officer

The UNDP is a secretive organization and so far has kept in the dark every information related to its Chief Finance Officer and Deputy Assistant Administrator, Mr. Darshak Shah. Click on the picture for more on Finance Office of UNDP.

UNDP Belarus - best breast corner

Should tax-payers dollars be used to photograph beautiful breasts - even when making a valid point?

Uncle Helen turning UNDP into a cove of corrupt NZ labour politicians

CLICK ON PICTURE TO SEE Chris Carter's latest Credit Card scandal - can he work at UNDP after that? It seems YES he is full tested!!

Helen Clark says: "No more cars"

Thinking about buying a new car this year? Why, you evil Westerner! You don’t need that. You are demanding your new car off the sweat, toil, and exploitation of the world’s poorest people in developing countries.

Happy Valentines Day !

Andrew Mitchell - says Helen Clark is up to no good!

1. UNDP’s partnership with the World Bank needs to be more effective, particularly in fragile and crisis-affected countries. 2. UNDP’s near universal mandate means its technical resources are spread very thinly. The Board does not provide strategic direction. HR management is weak. It has a weak results chain. 3. There is limited evidence of active senior management consideration of cost control. Country evidence points to mixed progress on demonstrating cost-efficiency. 4. The Executive Board is politicised and there is a lack of consensus on the key areas for reform. It is not clear that current plans for change will deliver the required depth and breadth of reform. 5. Evidence gathered at country level was highly critical of UNDP’s ability to deliver results. Its delivery can be undermined by staffing issues and bureaucratic processes. 6. Its performance in fragile states is mixed. It has reasonable training and a range of guidance and analytical tools but struggles to fill posts. 7. There is no evidence that the Climate Strategy was directly guiding resource allocation decisions

Mark Malloch Brown outraged over Aicha Gaddafi

“I hope she's not a UNDP Ambassador,” ...“I don't think it's UNDP. I was surprised when I saw that... she was an Ambassador to any part of the UN system.”

Travel Palestine - Rediscover Your Senses

Get ready to a sensual feast of ...sounds...scents of The Land of حماس‎ Ḥamās Documentary sponsored by UNDP Funds (click on picture for video)

Helen Clark on UNDP's own corruption (Can she be trusted?)

“When funds intended for life-saving treatment and prevention are stolen, that theft is tantamount to murder.” CLICK ON PICTURE FOR MORE

Scandal in Rwanda with Human Development Report

Aurelien Agbenonci, UNDP's RR in Kigali accuses Khalid Malik of making up data without UNDP Rwanda's knowledge. Rwanda Government is unhappy !!!

H.E. Dirk Niebel - German Development Minister

"I take the accusations made in the media concerning corruption and breach of fiduciary duty at the Global Fund very seriously and I am sure that the Fund will clarify the matter without delay. Germany is one of the biggest donors to the Global Fund. I have therefore seen to it that a special review will be held. I have frozen all further disbursements to the Fund until matters have been fully clarified, and I will ask a representative of the Fund to come to the BMZ to discuss the matter."

US Amb. Joseph Torsella blows the whistle on UN budgets

U.N. Secretariat’s proposed $5.2 “regular” budget for 2012-2013, was “simply loosening our belt a little less than we originally planned.”

The U.N. Exposed

How the United Nations Sabotages America's Security and Fails the World (Click in picture to purchase the book)

Share now information about illegal dealings at United Nations

If you are in possession of UNDP or any other United Nations Agency' contracts, correspondence, financial records or databases, which you believe detail wrongdoing such as fraud, mismanagement and abuse of authority, and you have failed to have UN's internal control, oversight and justice systems respond and/or react to your claims, you can send them to UNDP-WATCH and we will make them public keeping your identity anonymous and confidential.

Send an email to: undpwatchmeister@gmail.com

Helen Clark is watching you!

Gaddafi aint got nothing on UNDP - Click on the picture for more!

Malakia: A Turk advises Greece on Economy

Kemal Dervis (Turkish) and George Papandreou (Greek) share many late-night phone calls together (Click on picture to read story)

Where does Ban stand on Libya?

C'est vraiment ce que tu veux pour ta carriere?

Because UNDT is the first level of the UN’s two-tiered justice system, there is a possibility that this decision may be appealed. Hopefully, the Secretary-General will not be “absurd” enough to do so. Click above to go to GAP page.

Andrew Mitchell Demands Transparency from United Nations

And I promise you as well that in future, when it comes to international development, we will want to see hard evidence of the impact your money makes. Not just dense and impenetrable budget lines but clear evidence of real effect

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT UNITED NATIONS

Ban Ki Moon supports Ethics Decision on UNDP North Korea

Question: He recommends strongly that UNDP pays 14 months back pay to the whistleblower. Does the Secretary-General stand behind that recommendation? Should UNDP in fact pay that money, or are they free to rebuff that recommendation? Spokesperson: We will see what is going to happen. The Secretary-General of course is behind Mr. Benson on his report. There is no doubt about it. What UNDP will do, we will be seeing this; how they will implement that report.

Resign Now Kemal Dervis!!

In Memoriam to Algiers Victims

About UNDP Watch

UNDP Watch is a grouping of United Nations Staff committed to openness. We believe that everyone has the right to access information held by United Nations.
Despite a stated commitment to openness, UNDP remain a highly secretive agency.
Although a wealth of information is available on some UNDP websites, its Executive Board operate behind closed doors, much important programme and administrative information is never made available and, as a rule, information that is disclosed is provided only after relevant decisions have effectively been taken.
While UNDP has adopted “internal policies” on information disclosure, they in fact operate on precisely the opposite presumption. For the most part, they list which documents will be disclosed and when, and there is a presumption against the disclosure of all the other information they hold. They do not establish right of access, the lists of documents subject to disclosure is limited, they do not set out clear and narrow grounds for refusing access and they do not provide for independent oversight mechanisms to ensure proper implementation of the policy.
The UNDP WATCH is calling for the complete overhaul of these policies.

Speak out on Herfkens Corruption

U-Seek (UN Staff Union Initiative)

"...We believe that without accountability, there is impunity. We ask that you (Secretary General) not be complicit in cover-up of what happened prior to 11 Dec attack. The staff is sick and tired of the impunity extended by the office of the Secretary-General to senior managers for their failings especially in situations where it has led to death and disability."